


burning within my heart and mind

by weatheredlaw



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series)
Genre: F/M, Fix-It, Kissing, Mild Language, Post-Game(s), Rain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-28
Updated: 2015-12-28
Packaged: 2018-05-09 22:48:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5558492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weatheredlaw/pseuds/weatheredlaw
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shelly doesn’t like losing.</p><p>But she doesn’t like being a criminal so much these days, either, so she swallows that bitter pill and starts doing a lot of things she didn’t think she’d be doing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	burning within my heart and mind

**Author's Note:**

> i love redemption arcs.

Shelly doesn’t like losing.

But she doesn’t like being a criminal so much these days, either, so she swallows that bitter pill and starts doing a lot of things she didn’t think she’d be doing just a few weeks ago – because just a few weeks ago, she was hanging on to Archie’s every word. She believed they were doing the _right_ thing, even though that didn’t mean it was a _good_ thing. A few weeks ago, she was sure she could fly.

Now, she’s hauling her stuff into her mother’s old place in Rustboro, trying to get the smell of sea salt out of her hair. She hasn’t seen the Kid since she gave her Archie’s Sharpedonite, and she hasn’t seen Archie since he asked her to go.

_I need to fix things, and you need to start your own life. Away from here and…all of this._

She had argued, because she would always argue. But it was a sad sort of insistence, and she couldn’t say no to him anymore.

So she went, because there were some battles, she had learned, that could not be won.

Not by anybody.

 

~~~

 

She has a hard time sleeping in the house. It’s been years since she was in it – since her mother passed away. Archie had come back with her. He was the one who got the boat, who bought her the clothes, who held her hand through the funeral. He was the one who brought her back to the hotel and kissed her temple and put her to bed, and the next day destroyed some kid in a battle. Not their Kid. Not May.

Shelly wishes she had May here, for just a bit. Just to knock a little sense into her. Maybe losing to her might put things in perspective.

_It is okay to sleep in your mother’s bed. It is okay to get rid of her things. It is okay to paint the kitchen._

_This is your house._

_And it is okay to make it **yours.**_

 

~~~

 

She doesn’t expect him to come. She doesn’t expect him at all.

“Nice digs,” he says, and steps past her, into the house.

“Y-you can’t just…just _show up_ ,” she snaps. “You didn’t even call—”

“How about we consider this a surprise?”

“It _is_ a surprise, you idiot.”

“No, but like a gift.”

“ _You_ showing up _unannounced_ is hardly a _gift_ , Archie.”

He grins, setting down his bag and looking around. “You cleaned it up.”

“Yes. I did.”

“Spare room?”

Shelly sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose before she nods. “Up the stairs and to the right.” He chuckles, lifting his bag and taking the steps to at a time. “ _Idiot_.”

“I heard that,” he calls to her, and Shelly can’t stop herself from smiling.

 

~~~

 

“Talked to the Kid lately?”

“May? Nah, she’s busy. She beat all them trainers, up in Ever Grande. Mover and shaker, that one.”

“She still has your Sharpedonite.”

“Yeah, I let her keep it. She gave me back the Key Stone, but…” Archie shakes his head. “I’m trying to find a new hobby.” He pauses turning his head to listen for something before he smiles. “Like plumbing. You’ve got a leak.”

“I do, in the kitchen.”

He nods, going in and stooping down to inspect the pipes. “Eh, just need a wrench and five minutes.”

Shelly frowns. “Since when do you know anything about plumbing.”

“Since about ten seconds ago. Go on, get the tool box, I’m sure you’ve got one.”

She grumbles, heading to the shed outside and coming back with a rather light box of wrenches and screwdrivers.

“Not much of a selection.”

“How _many_ do you need?”

“Just the one,” he says, and proceeds to flood her kitchen. It takes a _real_ plumber four hours to fix his mess, and Archie pays for all of it. “Sorry,” he says, well after sundown, once the plumber is gone. “That, uh, didn’t go as I thought it would.”

“You can’t just…you can’t _do_ these things. You always do this.” Shelly groans, putting her face in her hands.

“It’s just a sink.”

“Yeah, well it was just the _world_ , wasn’t it? And we thought we knew so much better—”

“Don’t. Don’t go down this road. It’s taken me _weeks_ to sort through this and I won’t let you suffer with it, too—”

“Oh, so _now_ you want to protect me from it. Now, after you involved me in this for _years_ , you want to make sure that I don’t _feel anything_ , right? You want to make sure that you’re the only one with the guilt, just like you were always the only one with the power, and the only one with the burden of it all, and—”

“ _Stop._ This isn’t helping.”

“Yeah? Well it’s not hurting, either, you…you…you big _dummy._ _Ugh!_ ” She can’t even force the words out, and she stomps right out of her own house.

“Where are you going?” he calls after her.

“ _I don’t know!_ ”

“It’s your house, Shelly.”

“Yeah? Well that’s how _mad_ I am.”

“No.” He runs after her, grabbing her elbow and trying to pull her back.

The clouds have been threatening to burst all day, and now they finally do.

They are soaked, and it is too much.

“We could have _ruined_ everything.”

Archie pulls her close. “I know.”

“I trusted you. I trusted this. I trusted…everything. Every word you said, it…it _mattered._ Why do you think Matt was so angry? Why do you it was so _hard_ for May to forgive us?”

“We aren’t those people anymore.” Archies rests his head on top of her own. “I’m not that man now.”

“I trusted that man.”

“He lied to you. He didn’t know better, and he _lied_.”

Shelly shakes her head. “He told me a beautiful lie, then.”

“He shouldn’t have.” Archie reaches down to tip her face up, fingers resting under her chin. “He made a mistake. It was all a mistake.”

She shivers. She is soaked, and a cold, but his fingers are hot, burning on her skin. “All of it?”

“Well.” He presses his forehead to her own. “Almost all of it,” he says quietly, and pulls her back inside.

 

~~~

 

They are dry and dressed under the sheets of her bed, huddled close.

“What if it had happened?” she murmurs.

“Is that what you think about?” Shelly nods. “Eh, so do I.” He kisses the top of her head. “I don’t think that little—” He sighs, chuckling to himself. “May never would have let it happen. Nothing gets in her way.”

“If she hadn’t been there.”

“You’re gonna spiral with this, Shell. You’re gonna lose yourself in it.”

“Maybe I need to,” she says. “Maybe that’s the only way to deal with it.”

“No.” He sits up on his elbow, looking down at her. “It isn’t. That’s not true, and you know it.”

“Do I, though?” Shelly sits up, leaning against the headboard. “I thought I knew a lot of things. I thought I knew what Kyogre could do. I thought I knew what I was taking from Devon Corp. I thought I knew what was _right._ ” She laughs, but it’s weak. “I thought I knew what I was doing, coming back to this _stupid_ house, trying to live a life that isn’t even mine anymore. I don’t have a job, I can’t figure anything, out – _mmph!_ ” She gasps, freezing as Archie rises up to kiss her. He pulls back. “What—”

“You weren’t a mistake. You are capable of anything. I think you’re hot as hell and one of the best damn trainers I ever met.”

“I got beat by a kid. Seven times.”

“Sentiment still stands,” he says. “I…have a lot of feelings. About you. About this world. About the work I need to do next.”

“What are you planning?”

“Something. Something kind of big. This world needs people and Pokémon to always be together, and I’m going to do anything I can to make sure it keeps happening. There’s whispers of…scary shit, happening in Kalos.”

“Nothing bad happens in Kalos,” Shelly murmurs. “It’s like their slogan or something.”

“Yeah, well someone’s planning something.” He reaches behind her head and pulls her in for another kiss.

This time, she kisses back.

“I want you to go with me.”

“ _What?_ ”

“I gotta check it out. There’s people to talk to, things to sort. I want to make sure that no one tries anything as stupid as I did, ever again.”

“Archie…”

“I was an idiot. Twice over. I thought I was saving this world by letting it drown. I was wrong.” He sighs and kisses her shoulder. “And I thought I was saving you, by making you leave.” He looks at her. “I was wrong about that, too.”

“What—”

“I want to be with you. Anywhere, anyhow.”

Shelly flushes. “You don’t mean that.”

“I do. Come to Kalos with me. Come anywhere with me, I don’t care. Shit, we can stay right here, if you want. We’ll sort out our future later. I just…right now, I know I’m meant to be by your side.”

Shelly feels her hear swell, the ache give way to something warm. “ _Archie_.” She throws her arms around his neck, pulling him in. “Yes. Yes, I’ll go to Kalos. I’ll go to _Kanto_ , I don’t care. As long as it’s with you.”

“You mean that?”

She nods. “With every bit of my heart.”

Archie chuckles, putting his hand over her chest, closing his eyes. “It’s a strong one,” he says, and kisses her collarbone. “It needs to be, to belong to a woman like you.”

“And patient, to deal with a _man_ like _you._ ”

 “Touché, good lookin’. Touché.”


End file.
